Supreme Court Dismiss Maharashtra Govt Plea For Court Monitored SIT Probe Into Allegations Against Anil Deshmukh

Appearing before a Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh, Senior Advocate, Mr. Aryama Sundaram, the Counsel for the State, apprised it that the State objected to the ongoing CBI probe against Deshmukh with Subodh Kumar Jaiswal as the CBI director. He argued that Jaiswal was the former DGP of Maharashtra and part of the Police Establishment Board which oversaw the transfer and posting of the concerned police officers.

On 24.04.2021, the CBI had registered a case against Anil Deshmukh and others under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. Pursuantly, the Bombay High Court directed a preliminary enquiry. The State Government challenged certain portions of the FIR regarding transfer and postings of police officers, but in vain. Thereafter, it approached the Bombay High Court seeking SIT probe. In the interim the CBI investigation was stayed, but eventually the High Court dismissed the petition.

Mr. Sundaram submitted -

"The present director of CBI at relevant time was the Chairman of the establishment board responsible for transfer. He will either be possibly an accused or definitely a witness. I am not going into likelihood of bias, a person who is relevant as a witness or an accused, he was directly involved. My only submission is that if this is the situation that has arisen your lordship may constitute a SIT or whoever to investigate the matter. It surely cannot be that a person who is responsible for actions complained about in FIR, be the person to conduct investigation regarding that."

Justice Kaul remarked -

"It is complete red herring…Sorry, dismissed."

[Case Title: State of Maharashtra v. CBI]

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